Understanding the now with Dana Salim

As an entrepreneur, often, we don’t know what’s coming next. There are changes that happen in our lives that affect our business and we have no choice but to move along with it or stay stuck in the same place forever.

I recently did an Instagram Live with Dana Salim, she is an author, publisher, entrepreneur and mother of two adorable boys. Currently residing in San Antonio, Texas where she enjoys adventures every day with her family. You can find her on Instagram here. 

Changes in your business as an entrepreneur can be daunting. Suddenly, we wake up and we don’t know who we are. Eventually, we become lost. We are constantly evolving and because we are our own boss, we get to choose where we go and where we want to end up. However, this can be stressful to navigate. 

FROM SALAM SHOP TO MEA

I started Salamshop and flexed my entrepreneural skills until it was doing really well but I kept on having this nagging feeling that I needed to do more, to be more, that I haven’t reached my full potential yet. 

I started the transition to MEA but I still felt like a failure, I felt like I was letting everyone down. That scared me and the MEA was the perfect place for me to open up about it and talk about my true feelings. 

The same thing happened to Dana, she published her own book and then opened up DS Publishing with her husband. A little way down the line, she became lost and started suffocating under the many expectations she had of herself and the many hats she had to wear. 

Switching between the many roles had her burnt out and that’s when she made the often difficult decision to choose what she loved and let go of the rest. 

MAKING A SMALL CHANGE CAN BE SCARY

Small changes can seem like massive obstacles even if it is just small changes to your Instagram handle or web address. These small changes has us scared out of our minds because we are constantly worried about whether we are good enough to make that switch. We worry about what others will think, we worry about whether people will take us seriously if we change too much but most of this paranoia comes from us. We limit ourselves by projecting our thoughts onto other people. 

We need to realize that the nagging feeling of change as an entrepreneur means that something isn’t right and that you and your business are not going in the right direction.  Pivoting your business is not a failure. Yes, choosing to pivot your business can be a highly emotional and stressful time your life, one where you might feel like you are giving up on your dreams. 

It is really easy to wrestle with that demon and berate ourselves for doing something wrong in our business but at the end of the day, we need to do what is best for ourselves and what is best for our business. We need to keep in mind that if things were all good in the first place then we wouldn’t be having this nagging feeling of change. 

But with time the more you pivot, the easier it becomes and it will get easier because that is what entrepreneurship is about AND that doesn’t make you a failure.